An anonymous reader writes: The FCC has released a new report falsely claiming that the agency’s attack on net neutrality is already paying huge dividends when it comes to sector investment and competition. Unfortunately for the FCC, the data the agency is relying on to “prove” this claim comes from before current FCC boss Ajit Pai even took office and doesn’t remotely support that conclusion. The Trump FCC’s latest broadband deployment report [concludes] that “advanced telecommunications capability is being deployed to all Americans in a reasonable and timely fashion." That claim comes despite the fact that this same data also shows that two thirds of U.S. homes lack access to 25 Mbps broadband from more than one ISP, resulting in numerous broadband monopolies in markets nationwide.

An accompanying press release goes on to claim that “steps taken last year have restored progress by removing barriers to infrastructure investment, promoting competition, and restoring the longstanding bipartisan light-touch regulatory framework for broadband that had been reversed by the Title II Order.” The FCC has repeatedly tried to claim that the FCC’s 2015 net neutrality rules devastated sector investment—despite the fact this is easily disproved by ISP earnings reports, SEC filings, and numerous CEO statements to investors. That hasn’t stopped this FCC from repeating this claim anyway, apparently hoping that repetition forges reality.

An anonymous reader writes: Orbit Achieved. The rocket lifted off at 3:45 p.m. EST from Kennedy Space Center's historic launch pad 39A. The launch, originally scheduled for 1:30 p.m., was delayed for several hours due to wind conditions.

turp182 writes: This might be a dupe but it’s a good reminder for anyone who wants to watch this live.

The test launch of the Space-X Falcon Heavy rocket is scheduled for today (2/6) around 1:30PM Eastern time.
They are going to try and land/recover all three first stages rockets (two on land, one on water).

Qbertino writes: Heise reports (German link) that German authorities are examining loot boxes in video games and considering a legal ban of these. Loot boxes might actually even violate laws against calls-to-purchase aimed directly towards minors that are already in effect. German authorities are also checking that.... Nice. I'm sure we all agree that no one needs loot boxes.

An anonymous reader writes: A new botnet appeared over the weekend, and it's targeting Android devices by scanning for open debug ports so it can infect victims with malware that mines the Monero cryptocurrency. The botnet came to life on Saturday, February 3, and is targeting port 5555, which on devices running the Android OS is the port used by the operating system's native Android Debug Bridge (ADB), a debugging interface that grants access to some of the operating system's most sensitive features.

Only devices running the Android OS have been infected until now, such as smartphones, smart TVs, and TV top boxes, according to security researchers from Qihoo 360's Network Security Research Lab [Netlab] division, the ones who discovered the botnet, which the named ADB.miner. The botnet has been extremely aggressive and has grown each day, exhibiting a worm-like behavior, with infected devices scanning the Internet for other victims.

Currently, Netlab has detected ADB.miner scans coming from nearly 7,400 unique IP addresses, based on public data collected by Netlab's Scanmon system. Most IP addresses scanning for other devices (meaning they are already infected) are located in China (~40%) and South Korea (~30%). Yiming told Bleeping Computer that the botnet has mostly infected "TV-related" devices, rather than smartphones.

Qbertino writes: Due to sustained NGO, grassroots and political initiatives and raised privacy protection awareness around european members of parliament, large parts of Europe are about to get a notable boost in privacy protection for regular citizens. It's called General Data Protection Regulation.

"Datenschutzgrundverordnung", DSGVO for short, is the German name to a new Eurozone-wide set of laws being introduced in Q2 of 2018. A solid and very detailed implementation of rules that will require companies in general and internet companies in particular to follow a tracable and continuosly documented set of SOPs that ensure 100% complinace with new data protection directives that put the protection of the consumer at the center and close loopholes where in recent years to many corporations have let to much slide on the side of privacy protection.

Finaclial penalties for not complying will be raised significantly aswell — up to 20 Million Euros or 4% of global revenue for megacorps. Ouch. Experts predict an onslaught of lawsuits for any company to lazy to care and follow through, and consulting and perperation efforts are popping up left, right and center with first-movers and privacy-aware companies struggling to match the requirements ASAP that will come in May 2018.

Some U.S. links for anyone doing business in Europe here and here. Perpare for incoming says me.